Description

Imagine an earthquake centered in your city or town. Where would the most damage occur? How much economic loss would there be? How many casualties? The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) developed a free software package (HAZUS) with the primary purpose to simulate the effects of earthquakes and other natural disasters in order to estimate potential regional damages and loss. These estimates may be used by local, state and regional officials to 1) plan and stimulate risk-reduction efforts and 2) to prepare emergency response and recovery action plans. HA-13D

Each HAZUS county-based ZIP file includes a number of PDF files or folders with individual reports that may or may not include:

A random earthquake report that examines a seismic event occurring on a theoretical fault within the county boundary.

A set of worst-case scenarios replicating events of maximum intensity based on particular known historical earthquakes. The simulations are based on either the Western US (WUS) or Central and Eastern US (CEUS) attenuation functions (see the USGS Open-File Report 2008-1128 for details).

The PDF files may be navigated using the built-in bookmarks feature that may be seen to the left of an Adobe Acrobat (Reader) window.

Disclaimer:

The estimates of social and economic impacts contained in these reports were produced using HAZUS loss estimation methodology software which is based on 2005 scientific and engineering knowledge. There are uncertainties inherent in any loss estimation technique. Therefore, there may be significant differences between the modeled results contained in this report and the actual social and economic losses following a specific earthquake. These results may be improved by using enhanced inventory, geotechnical, and observed ground motion data. Monetary values are in either 2006 or 2013 dollars, depending on the date of the simulation (which appears on the report cover sheet).

In the general earthquake model, the probabilistic ground motion and earthquake faults are developed from data supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado. See Summary of Databases in Hazus HAZUS database

The entire state-wide set of the county HAZUS reports will also be made available as a single ZIP-file download.

CGS Mission

The mission of the Colorado Geological Survey is building vibrant economies and sustainable communities, free from geologic hazards, for people to live, work and play through good science, collaboration, and sound management of mineral, energy and water resources.

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